


Promises of Some Day Make Her Dreams

by hhertzof



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-31
Updated: 2010-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:56:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time isn't done with Sarah Jane Smith just yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promises of Some Day Make Her Dreams

This wasn't the first time that Sarah had run into people who wanted to rejuvenate themselves. But this group was using a variation of Whitaker's machine and the moment she ran into the room she _knew_ it was about to go critical. As the four of them watched from the observation chamber, two of the technicians de-aged from twenty-somethings to babies before disappearing completely. And the worst part was that the Doctor was trapped at the centre of the field, trying to save Lauren.

Sarah Jane started to move towards the door to the lab.

"Don't, Sarah Jane. It's not safe." Amy was frantically scanning the console as though she thought there was some way to shut down the malfunction from there.

"There isn't any other way. There's no fail-safe in here. I'm going to have to shut it down from in there." Sarah Jane pointed her thumb at the machine emitting the temporal pulse. "Rory, maybe you'd better go back to the infirmary. The people who've had the treatment might need medical assistance. Turlough, Amy, stay here and monitor the field. Get out if I fail." it wasn't as though the glass would contain the wave as it expanded, no matter what process they'd used to temper it. Sarah took a deep breath. "I'm going in. Don't argue. I'm the oldest one here and the one who's most likely to be able to get to the machine before losing enough time to disappear."

Amy frowned at her and Sarah Jane could feel the younger woman judging her, calculating the fifty years that separated them. "The Doctor will figure out a way-"

Sarah Jane didn't let the girl finish. "I've been doing this since before you were born, Amy. I travelled with the Doctor too. I know the risks." And if she died here, at least there would be other people to pick up the pieces.

She'd supposedly retired, anyway. The kids she'd trained on Bannerman road twenty years before were continuing her work and she'd been tired of running for a long time. "Speed isn't going to affect anything. I've dealt with temporal disturbances like that. You wouldn't even know how to shut down the machine safely."

The machine was in the middle of the room, and there was about a two foot gap between the walls of the room and the temporal instability. But the longer she waited the larger the field would become and the less likely she'd make it to the centre before she de-aged as the technicians had. Still, she took the time to put on the cloak she'd brought in her pack - a bit of future tech she'd brought from Earth, created during the early days of time travel research to protect the wearer from overdoses of Artron energies when travelling through the time vortex. They'd improved the design over the simple cloak she'd had, but the later versions were too structured to fit into a backpack, so she preferred this one. She pulled up the hood and stepped into the lab, closing and locking the door behind her.

Sarah wasn't sure what she expected, but it was like walking through quicksand. Every step met resistance, but to her surprise the de-ageing process didn't hurt. In fact, as she walked the minor aches and pains that had started to plague her faded away and her stride grew stronger.

She could never tell how long it took to get to the machine. She stared for a moment at the unwrinkled hands. Studying the machine, she found the off switch and then disabled the machine completely, removing the energy source--a vortex manipulator from the Time Agency. Out of time _and_ out of place. How it had got here, she couldn't guess. She strapped it to her wrist where it would be covered by the cloak. The sudden lack of resistance as time returned to normal stunned her and she collapsed.

* * *

A moment later a voice she recognised rang through the room. "Sarah!" The Doctor seemed to be yammering on about the dangers of their experiment and how it hadn't worked anyway. She tuned him out. _He_ might have some chance of convincing them.

She was vaguely aware that he was scanning her with his sonic screwdriver.

"You have the power source?"

She managed a low "Yes. Is Lauren okay?"

"She's safe." A pause. "This is Lauren? Your Lauren?"

"My Lauren. Even Earth in my day was starting to freeze zygotes until the parents were ready. Trion technology is a bit more sophisticated than that." She tried to sit up but fell back, drained of all energy. "We had to wait until we could give her some semblance of safety." She might have laughed brittlely, if she'd had the strength. Sarah Jane hadn't expected to live to see her daughter grow up, but this was not how she had planned to go.

He stood and she lost sight of his face in the limited vision of the hood, but she felt a pair of small arms grab tight and a whispered, "Mummy. I--"

The Doctor's voice cut through whatever Lauren had been about to say. "She's dead. I hope you're satisfied. Her heart couldn't take it. You _don't_ want to know what damage that machine could have caused if she hadn't stopped it. When you write your report, Lieutenant, make it clear that she was the hero of the piece." He bent down and lifted her and Lauren up, cradling her so that both her face and the power source were hidden. "I'm going to have to take her off planet--her body is too contaminated with temporal energy to be safe anywhere on Trion right now."

Sarah relaxed and let him carry her through the crowd that had gathered, barking out instructions as he passed. She didn't have to guess the reason for this charade--if it was a charade. Her body had absorbed too much Artron energy. One hand, hidden by the cloak, reached out to stroke her daughter's hair. "You're safe, Lauren. Daddy will be here soon." She found herself wondering if this was why her daughter would have such a talent for slipping through cracks in time.

It wasn't long until he was laying her down on the floor of the TARDIS.

"Will she come with me?" The Doctor asked gently.

"Lauren, go with the Doctor," Sarah said weakly. "He'll get you to your Dad." She thought for a moment that Lauren would object--she'd inherited a double-dose of stubbornness--but she went to the doctor quite willingly. "I used my lipstick to lock them out."

"And Amy used the Doctor's screwdriver to undo the lock." Turlough's voice was quiet--too quiet. "I gather reports of your death were greatly exaggerated. I approve."

"Daddy." Sarah couldn't see Lauren from this angle, but had no doubt that she was trying to escape the Doctor's arms for her Dad's, oblivious to the distance between the two of them.

The Doctor turned. "Turlough. I could have wished for better circumstances, but it's good to see you again. I believe this is yours. Close the door, Amy. Sarah's going to need to ground herself on the TARDIS and we don't want any of that energy escaping. Sarah wait until they get up to the balcony."

"Tell me when, Doctor."

"They're safe. You know what to do?" The Doctor dropped cross-legged beside her.

"Drain the energy into the TARDIS. Just grab hold and give a mental push," Sarah did just that, causing the floor of the TARDIS to flicker with bright blue energy, for a moment before she lost consciousness.

* * *

Awareness came back in bits. She was lying on something. Not the TARDIS floor.

"You-. But it did work." Rory said. "Why'd the others revert back to being old?"

"That's the way it _should_ have worked. Sarah's an anomaly. High level of artron energy in her body and a timeline so tangled that something snapped in her case." The Doctor, seemed to notice she was awake and reached down to help her up. "I'd say you lost about fifty years in there. It was touch and go for a while--I wasn't sure your body could take it."

Turlough was already putting Lauren back in her arms. "If you say one more word about the difference in our ages--"

Sarah laughed weakly. "Hush, you." She leaned back on the pillow that Amy had found her. Lauren was fast asleep, but then it had been a very, long exciting day for a two-year-old. "I'm not planning on going anywhere."

The Doctor laughed suddenly. "Don't tell me the two of you are going to try to live together."

"That's the idea." Turlough might have smirked a little.

Sarah might have thrown something at him if there had been anything at hand besides the pillow she was lying on. "We figured I'd pull a Bilbo Baggins and disappear off the face of the Earth--which I did when Lauren was born. If I had stayed, one of my enemies would have got too close as I slowed down, and the older I got the less I fancied going that way. And I wanted a little time with my daughter." She stared down at hands no longer spotted and wrinkled with age. "I guess time isn't done with me yet." Sarah wasn't surprised. There had been hints all along that she would survive to see the 22nd century, but she hadn't dared believe them. "Luke's coming round next week. He's in for a shock."


End file.
